Background. Mannose-binding lectin (MBL) is a multifunctional protein involved in innate immunity. We tested whether MBL and elevated viral and bacterial antibodies were risk factors for acute coronary events. Design. Controlled cohort study. Methods. A total of 354 patients with unstable angina pectoris (UA) or acute myocardial infarction (AMI) were compared with 334 paired controls. Results. Ent

To determine if type III collagen is concentrated in the chymotrypsin-extractable collagen pool from osteoarthritic articular cartilage to assess its potential as a biomarker of Osteoarthritis (OA) pathogenic mechanisms.

The experimentally known phenomenon that originally collinear mode I cracks seem to avoid each other before coalescence is studied by investigating the stability of straight crack paths. To this end a periodic array of approximately collinear but slightly curved cracks is considered. Stress intensity factors for modes I and II are derived and the growth of originally straight cracks under mode I c

Summary: In [Aleman, A., Carlsson, M. and Persson A., Preduals of $Q_p$-spaces. Complex Variables (To appear).], we have obtained a representation of the Cauchy-predual of the space $Q_p$ on the unit disc as a weak product of weighted Dirichlet and Bergman spaces. The present article is a continuation of Aleman et al. and contains several applications and further developments of those results. We

OBJECTIVE: Recent data suggest that soluble CD40L (sCD40L) plays an important role in murine sepsis. The aim of the present study was to determine plasma levels of CD40L in critically ill patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) and shock, with and without sepsis. DESIGN: A prospective observational one-centre cohort study in a mixed-bed ICU of an university hospital. Fifty-thr

BACKGROUND: Brain edema and intracranial hypertension is deleterious after traumatic brain injury (TBI), but the underlying pathophysiology is complex and poorly understood. One major subject of controversy is the time course and extent of blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction following trauma, and previous studies in humans have only provided semi-quantitative data. The objective of the present s

Public disclosure of outcome-orientated ranking of hospitals is becoming increasingly popular and is routinely used by Swedish health-care authorities. Whereas uncertainty about an outcome is usually presented with 95% confidence intervals, ranking's based on the same outcome are typically presented without any concern for bias or statistical precision. In order to study the effect of incomplete r

Young children, 3 to 6 years’ old, were observed in two situations: (1) a traffic model, where they used dolls to enact the movements of two children on the way to and from day care; and (2) as they crossed a lightly trafficked, minor road in a situation analogous to that in the model. Atotal of 131 children participated. All were tested in the model situation (a), both on understanding of safety

Objective: We examined the effect of GH substitution on adipose tissue derived hormones and cytokines and sought to identify predictors for changes in body composition during therapy. Long-standing adult-onset GH deficiency (AO-GHD) is associated with increased body fat mass (FM) which, through production of hormones and inflammatory cytokines from adipose tissue, may contribute to different manif

Since the 1990s, numerous studies on the relationship between parents and their children have been reported on in the literature and implemented as a philosophy of care in most paediatric units. The purpose of this article is to understand the process of nurses' care for children in a paediatric setting by using Noddings's caring ethics theory. Noddings's theory is in part described from a theoret

OBJECTIVE: This article, based on the Early Manifest Glaucoma Trial (EMGT), provides prospective natural history data on progression of glaucomatous field defects in 3 of the most common glaucoma types. DESIGN: Cohort of EMGT patients randomized to the untreated control group and followed up to the time of progression, when treatment could be initiated. PARTICIPANTS: We evaluated 118 control patie

OBJECTIVE: Gene expression alterations, especially in target tissues of insulin, have been associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Here, we examined if genes involved in oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) show differential gene expression and DNA methylation in pancreatic islets from patients with T2D compared with non-diabetic donors. DESIGN AND METHODS: Gene expression was analyzed in human panc

Lumbar puncture (LP) is increasingly performed in memory clinics. We investigated patient-acceptance of LP, incidence of and risk factors for post-LP complications in memory clinic populations.

To improve the sensitivity of antibody microarray assays, we developed ENSAM ( Europium Nanoparticles for Signal enhancement of Antibody Microarrays). ENSAM is based on two nanomaterials. The first is polystyrene nanoparticles incorporated with europium chelate (beta-diketone) and coated with streptavidin. The multiple fluorophores incorporated into each nanoparticle should increase signal obtaine

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)-based therapy is a novel treatment for type 2 diabetes. It is executed either by GLP-1 mimetics or by dipeptidyl peptidase-IV inhibitors. In type 2 diabetes, the two strategies reduce hemoglobin A(1c) by 0.6% to 1.1% from baseline levels of 7.7% to 8.5%. They are efficient both in monotherapy and in combination with metformin or thiazolidinediones. Both treatments a

We present a stopping condition to the duality based distributed optimization algorithm presented in [1] when used in a distributed model predictive control (DMPC) context. To enable distributed implementation, the optimization problem has neither terminal constraints nor terminal cost that has become standard in model predictive control (MPC). The developed stopping condition guarantees a prespec

BACKGROUND: Healthcare today is a complex system with increasing needs of specific knowledge of evaluation of research and implementation into clinical practice. A critical issue is that we all apply evidence-based practice (EBP) with standardised methods and continuing and systematic improvements. EBP includes both scientific and critical assessed experience-based knowledge. For the individual,

BACKGROUND: Circulatory instability is a serious problem after brain death in organ donors. The hypotension is often counteracted with infusion of large amounts of crystalloid solutions, which may impair lung function leading to rejection of the lungs as donor organs. The aim was to show that the circulation can be normalized pharmacologically for 24 h in pigs after total removal of the brain and